The Train Heist
It was a warm June night around 10pm in Union City. Dr. Zero voicemail - digitally altered, radio-static “I know who you are and what you’re capable of. Meet at the docks, pier 14 by midnight.” Signore Teste is in his zeppelin HQ, heading to Union City from Europe. He is a master thief, a famous man who takes on any challenge. He is tall, thin, and wears an oversized head that would be comical if he didn’t garner such respect. Across town near the docks, in one of Union City’s many hotel bars, a 17-year-old mademoiselle was sitting with a drink in hand. At the north end of town, Aisling Fitzwarren found herself entering Union City limits from the direction of Nova City. She had just completed a kill. Cyberian Code, age 16, congratulated himself on being a super savant, though he preferred the term “hacker.” Trevor N. Taggert, aka “TNT” was making his way toward the docks via public transportation and walking. As the group converged on the docks, they saw the zeppelin over the bay and watched as Signore Teste rappelled down. TNT felt the desire to blow the zeppelin up in a bizarre, smaller-scale Hindenberg recreation. Because his feet touched Pier 14 before anyone else’s, Signore Teste had the distinction of arriving “First!” Pier 14 was a large, empty block of warehouses. Overhead seagulls beat the heady sea air with their dirty wings. Mlle. Tussad, TNT, and Aisling all greeted each other cautiously. As they were warming to their small talk, a particularly strong breeze blew open the doors to the close-by warehouse. Bright fluorescent lights flooded the courtyard and caused the group to scatter. As their eyes adjusted to the assaulting light, they could see inside the warehouse to where 6-7 folding chairs had been set up, facing the opposite wall. An old video projector began whirring loudly and cast its message onto the wall. Cyberian Code came in and took a seat on the far right. The projector’s whirring settled into a comfortable hum as a live feed took the place of the white warm-up screen. On the feed was a blurry, digitally altered outline of a man on a phone. He turned to face the group. “Check your bank accounts,” a voice instructed. “The...small… sum I’ve wired to you represents what I like to think of as an investment in your considerable talents. You will receive, of course, a larger payment upon delivery. The target you seek is the Starlight Express, leaving tomorrow. Onboard is a laptop. I need it. There are plenty of empty rooms on this super-luxury train, the passengers are all wildly wealthy. Do not destroy the train as you retrieve the laptop, as it may be destroyed in the process. As this is a long-travelling train, you may rely upon two stops with one day between each stop. The route is winding and goes through mountain tunnels. I trust this will not be inconvenient for such an assembly as yourselves.” Nobody disagreed. The figure signed off. Cyberian Code already had information about the train on his personal device. “Green Tree Ltd. is the parent company of the train,” he said. “The train is carbon neutral, faster and more efficient than traditional trains. To get more information, though, I’ll need to get to their HQ and access their physical servers.” Signore Teste agreed to let the group use his zeppelin to reach Gree Tree Ltd. As they climbed aboard the rope ladder, everyone noted the roominess of the zeppelin, the polished wooden consoles, the beautiful library, and the strong wifi signal (this was noticed by Cyberian Code). They began their leisurely pace to Green Tree Ltd. Upon arriving at the roof of Green Tree, the group rappelled down and tried the door. Of course, it was locked. TNT was able to break through with ease and they continued their stealth mission. A guard was just walking up the stairs, right in time to be caned by Signore Teste. When this failed to drop him, Aisling poisoned him and he fell to the ground. Not quite seeing the guard was only unconscious, Signore Teste scolded the lady assassin. “Thata is.. how you say.. warped in your mind! We do nota kill!” “I’m not warped,” Aisling retorted. “I’m… differently moraled. And he isn’t dead.” “Guys, we really need to find the server room. We’re working on a time limit here,” Cyberian Code reminded them. The group rallied themselves and continued down the corridor. As a precaution, Mlle. Tussad transformed herself into a replica of the guard to serve as the group’s lookout. Their search took them down to the end of a grey corridor and a glass-windowed office that was the Security Office. Three guards game out as the group tried to make their way quickly in the opposite direction. They were able to hide, but the body of the unconscious guard remained prone in the hallway. “Johnson!” one of them ran over to him. “We have a guard down,” one of them quickly spoke into his radio. Mlle. Tussad stepped forward. “I already called it in,” she said, in Johnson’s voice, trying to keep her head down. It would have raised too much suspicion to have two Johnsons. Unfortunately for her, the guards caught sight of her face. “Wait…” TNT chose that moment to fire off a concussive blast, knocking the guards out. “Merci,” Tussad nodded her thanks and shifted herself back into her normal form. They heard footsteps coming up the stairs near them. TNT and Signore Teste wanted to meet those incoming and put them to sleep. While Cyberian Code, Mlle. Tussad, and Aisling ducked behind the two men, a group of guards appeared on the stairs. TNT set off another concussive blast and dropped four of them. One guard was able to fire his sidearm at Signore Teste, but the shot ricocheted off his head. He struck the guard with his cane, but the man was able to hold his ground. Aisling turned around and lunged at the guard, who dodged, giving Signore Teste the chance to hit him again. He joined his brethren on the ground, unconscious. Cyberian Code and Mlle. Tussad had been moving toward the other stairwell, but they turned around as TNT exploded the top of the stairwell closest to him. The other guards coming up from downstairs stopped in their tracks. Aisling leapt over the rubble and began taking out guards left and right. Signore Teste was on her heels, cane flying. In an impressive display of strength, she threw a guard down the stairs. He rolled right into a door, kicking it open to reveal banks upon banks of servers. Calling to Cyberian Code, Signore Teste used the datalink in the head of his cane to get a feed of all the videos on the security server. Cyberian Code arrived and unleashed his special program “Reena” to collect the schematics, list of Green Tree employees, and a passenger manifesto to the Starlight Express. Three people of note who were set to be on the train: Brett Walton, CEO of Apricot Computers, Trudy Baker, FOOD Network Star, and Elizabeth Hanes, the diamond heiress. The group moved into the now unoccupied security office where they printed tickets with aliases according to TNT’s Master Plan. THE MASTER PLAN Signore Teste and TNT would blow up the tracks in time to stop the train. Everyone else would be on board, masquerading as passengers. The train had departed its station at 2p, nearly an hour ago. Reena spit out a Top News story as well: Mysterious Cab Driver Death Baffles Police Aisling’s ticket read “Amara Francis.” Mlle. Tussad’s ticket read “Ilsa Grey”-- she transformed herself into a blonde bombshell. Their next step was to get everyone to the train, which they accomplished with Signore Teste’s zeppelin. The zeppelin then carried TNT and Signore Teste further down the track where TNT planted the Super Bomb that would take out a bridge at the appropriate time. Onboard the Starlight Express, everyone was dazzled by the gorgeous cars, the gleaming dance floor, even a fully stocked bar in the dining car, plus a cinema room with a little-known film playing. But it was time for the Plan. Reena was used to get into the train’s wifi to intercept all incoming/outgoing messages of all kinds. Cyberian Code monitored this from “Ilsa Grey”’s private compartment. Mlle Tussad morphed into one of the train hostesses and went down the compartment line inquiring in the name of “Hospitality! Is everyone in this compartment satisfied with the journey so far?” Brett Walton, Apricot CEO, asked for a spare pillow, as he didn’t seem to have one. The “Hostess” assured him one would be brought to him immediately. He didn’t need anything else, so she had to move on. Using Reena, Cyberian Code was able to update Signore Teste on their progress. Still no sign of laptop. The chef, Trudy Baker, told the very friendly “Amara” she met in the dining car that “Nicholas Cage is on the train.” She seemed very excited, and “Amara” encouraged her to go try to meet him. How that meeting ended is anyone’s guess, but Nicholas Cage did survive the encounter. Reena sent Cyberian Code an alert to a text that read “i hve the pkg.” He sent Aisling and Mlle. Tussad to investigate Brett Walton’s compartment. Mlle. Tussad turned back into Ilsa Grey, the blonde bombshell, and was welcomed into Brett’s compartment almost immediately. “I am attracted to power,” she purred. “You exude it.” Unfortunately, the lights went out, Brett collapsed, and when the lights came back up, there was a dead body at Mlle’s feet. The door behind her burst open and the train security swarmed in. She fell to her knees, feigning sadness, but was able to send word to Signore Teste: “We know where it is. Blow the bridge.” As the body was cleared away, Ilsa Grey was cleared of all wrongdoing, and Aisling slipped back into the compartment to search for the laptop. It didn’t take long for her to find the thing, and she alerted the others. As the thieves made their way to the roof of the train, their communicators suddenly all went to very loud static. There was a massive rumbling in the distance accompanied by strange music. As the group struggled to hear each other over the rattling of the train, their attention was grabbed by a massive gunship coming toward them. “DUCK!” Aisling cried, and they all flattened themselves on the roof as a rocket exploded into the packed earth on the natural wall behind them. A man in heavy black ballistics armor descended from the gunship that was now hovering overhead. He grabbed the laptop from Aisling, then rode up his line again. As though on cue, Signore Teste jumped down from his zeppelin, hitting the man with his cane. The armor saved him, and he was able to brush off the attack. However, it was clear he was upset, because he fired a quickly-produced assault rifle at the group. TNT threw a cluster of small bombs towards him, which caused his guideline to snap. The Man was able to keep his balance. Mlle. Tussad whipped out her sidearm and unloaded two bullets into the man’s collarbone which was unprotected by the armor. He staggered, coughing up profuse amounts of blood. “Give me your name!” she demanded. “Jury!” he snarled. “Filthy French bitch!” he spat blood onto her face. Mlle. Tussad stuck one finger into his gaping wound, sending him to his knees. Keeping her eyes locked with his, she ran the bloody finger across her face from cheek bone to cheek bone, the thick red blood forming a ribbon on her skin. TNT threw two grenades up into the gunship, which promptly exploded and spun off into the field next to the train tracks. Aisling kicked Jury off the roof, and he landed near the tracks. Hard. The group returned to Signore Teste’s zeppelin, where Cyberian Code coped the data from the laptop to his personal drive. “For insurance,” he explained casually. “Looks like some kind of designs.” Signore Teste called Dr. Zero. “We have ze lapatopa,” he said. “Bring it to this address,” Zero told them. “Room 136.” When they arrived at the address, it was, surprisingly, a retirement community. Room 136 was unlocked, and when no one answered the knocking, they walked in. “Please, come in. Sit down. Won’t you have some tea? I promise there is an explanation.” As they all filed in, sitting in various places around the room, Zero explained. “I am a member of the Devil’s Four-- perhaps you have heard of us?” They all nodded, hearts beating a little faster at being in the presence of criminal mind greatness. “I am sorry for the smoke and mirrors. As you can see, I am a tired old man and desired one last big heist. Did you bring the laptop?” Signore Teste produced it for Zero, who took it, murmuring, “Excellent.” “As a matter of your payment,” he continued, “I will send it quickly, but I do have a request. I need some...or all… of you to do me a favor.” They all leaned in. “Kill the other members of the Devil’s Four.” The group exchanged glances. Aisling looked beside herself with glee. Zero’s cell phone rang. “Hello?... Oh, please excuse me, my friends. It’s my daughter, Mindy.”